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"This isn’t a leadership issue at all, it is policy issue, although, obviously I would much have preferred the leadership to have taken us in a different direction on this issue," he said.

Asked if he was going to challenge for the leadership, Mr Abbott replied: “I am not going to talk about discussions I might have had with colleagues.

"I can’t say what might happen in the future but as far as I am concerned this is a policy issue not a leadership issue."

Mr Abbott said his office had had an “absolute deluge" of critical emails after Mr Turnbull announced the coalition’s support for the amended ETS.

"The phone lines have been in meltdown with people saying that the Liberal Party would not be doing its job as an opposition simply to pass this thing without scrutiny ... it demands," he said.

Mr Abbott said it had been a “pretty heavy week" for the party. "And for someone who has a record of loyalty to the party and to the leader that I’ve had, this has been an incredibly momentous decision."

Pressed on whether he supported Mr Turnbull as leader, Mr Abbott said: “I’ve just resigned from the front bench and obviously I do not support the policy direction that he is taking the party on this issue."

Mr Abbott would not speculate whether he and Senator Minchin had the numbers in the Senate to block the ETS legislation.

"I’m not going to speculate on what the situation might be in the Senate," he said.

Mr Abbott said that after Thursday’s parliamentary question time, he and Senator Minchin went to Mr Turnbull about the amendments to the government’s carbon pollution reduction scheme that were negotiated with the opposition.

"In the light of the heavy criticism from industry groups of the amendments we had proposed with the government and in the light of the meltdown that is currently taking place within the Liberal Party that the matter showed be reconsidered," he said.

He said he and Senator Minchin told Mr Turnbull the party should accept the amendments and propose that the amended bill be sent to a Senate inquiry in February after the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen.

"Because it was important that .... we should do things according to the national interest rather than just give the Prime Minister a personal victory to take to Copenhagen," he said.

He said Mr Turnbull was unprepared to reconsider.

"It was a very civil, rational, courteous conversation, conducted in a spirit of mutual respect, but I indicated to Malcolm at the end of the conversation that given his position I could no longer support the opposition’s policy and therefore could no longer be in the shadow cabinet."

Mr Abbott said he and Mr Turnbull had discussed this issue for some time.

"Malcolm knows it is now some time since I decided that the politics of this for our side were becoming incredibly difficult and that the important thing was keeping the team together," he said.

"Malcolm has known for some time that the course of action which he has ultimately decided upon would in my view have had very difficult consequences for our unity."

Mr Abbott said the coalition had plainly been through a difficult period and it was important to regroup and it would be better to do that on the basis of a policy that all could support.

He said he was not seeking a leadership ballot. "All I am focusing on at the moment is the policy issue and I think whatever happens it is important that we find a policy on this issue that we can all support," he said.

"I accept that Malcolm would have preferred that I didn’t do this.

"I also think it is important where you find that you can no longer support the policy that the leadership has adopted, that you take the honourable course."